Google, Kairos, TVA To Help Meet US Energy Demand

Google, Kairos Power, and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on Monday announced a new collaboration to help meet America’s growing energy demand and bolster the country’s leadership in advanced nuclear energy.

Through a new power purchase agreement (PPA) between Kairos Power and TVA, Kairos Power’s Hermes 2 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee will deliver up to 50 MW of reliable, 24/7 energy to the TVA grid that powers Google data centres in Tennessee and Alabama.

TVA is the first US utility to sign a PPA to buy electricity from an advanced, GEN IV reactor, and Hermes 2 is the first deployment under Kairos Power’s landmark deal with Google to enable 500 MW of new, advanced nuclear capacity to come online by 2035 in support of Google’s load growth. To accelerate the delivery of clean energy to Google, Kairos Power will increase Hermes 2’s output from 28 MW to 50 MW generated by a single reactor, scheduled to begin operations in 2030, Kairos Power said.

Through this agreement, Google will receive the clean energy attributes from the plant through the TVA system to further decarbonise its data centre operations in Montgomery County, Tennessee, and Jackson County, Alabama, and support future growth in the region.

This collaboration demonstrates TVA’s commitment to integrating innovative, firm energy sources like Kairos Power’s advanced nuclear technology to proactively support the development of new clean generation within its service territory.

Amanda Peterson Corio, Google’s Global Head of Data Center Energy, said that to power the future, there is a need to grow the availability of smart, firm energy sources.

“This collaboration with TVA, Kairos Power, and the Oak Ridge community will accelerate the deployment of innovative nuclear technologies and help support the needs of our growing digital economy while also bringing firm carbon-free energy to the electricity system. Lessons from the development and operation of the Hermes 2 plant will help drive down the cost of future reactors, improving the economics of clean firm power generation in the TVA region and beyond,” Amanda said.

Important Enabler

Kairos Power CEO and co-founder Mike Laufer said that this collaboration is an important enabler to making advanced nuclear energy commercially competitive.

Laufer also said that the re-envisioned Hermes 2 gets us closer to the commercial fleet sooner and could only be made possible by close collaboration with TVA and Google, and a supportive local community.

TVA President and CEO Don Moul said that energy security is national security, and electricity is the strategic commodity that is the building block for AI and the country’s nation’s economic prosperity.

“The world is looking for American leadership, and this first-of-a-kind agreement is the start of an innovative way of doing business. By developing a technology, a supply chain, and a delivery model that can build an industry to unleash American energy, we can attract and support companies like Google and help America win the AI race,” he added.

The three companies aim to deliver an innovative solution for industrial energy users to meet their growing business needs responsibly while driving local economic growth and opportunity. This approach protects electricity customers by limiting development costs to first movers while helping to bring costs down for customers as additional units are delivered.

The US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that the deployment of advanced nuclear reactors is essential to the US AI dominance and energy leadership.

He said that the US Department of Energy has assisted Kairos Power with overcoming technical, operational, and regulatory challenges as a participant in the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, and DOE will continue to help accelerate the next American nuclear renaissance.